PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Schools: Ventilation (5 December 2023)

The department recognises that letting fresh air into indoor spaces and ensuring they are well ventilated can help remove air that contains virus particles and is important in reducing the spread of airborne illnesses, including flu, Strep A and COVID-19.

A departmental priority is to reduce overall school absence and maximise the number of children who regularly attend school. One way to help achieve this is through maintaining good ventilation which creates a healthy indoor environment for staff and students.

Between September 2021 and April 2023, the department has delivered over 700,000 CO₂ monitors to over 45,000 state-funded settings, including early years, further education, childminders operating in groups of four or more, and children’s homes that offer places to six or more. This means that all eligible settings now have an assigned monitor for every teaching and childcare space. The monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working, helping balance the need for good ventilation with keeping classrooms warm.

Settings that reported high CO₂ readings using their monitors were able to apply for department funded air cleaning units, where they met the criteria, to help reduce airborne transmission of illness further. The department has subsequently provided over 9,000 ACUs to over 1,300 settings to help them manage their indoor air quality while longer term remedial work is undertaken to address the underlying ventilation issue.

The department has published guidance with linked resources to help settings understand the need for good ventilation, and how to make the most out of their devices. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-co-monitors-and-air-cleaning-units-in-education-and-care-settings.